Mike Kern, Author of Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Hey everyone, just a quick update that it looks as though Chapter 20 of Dark Winter will be delayed, likely for a week. I’m moving next week and work has us working overtime again. So between packing and long hours at the office, I just can’t find the hours this week.

I hate doing this, because it’s been very prevalent these past few months. Now, I don’t discuss my day job very often but due to my frequent delays, I thought it might be worthwhile to explain at least partially what I do.

I work in Quality Assurance as a Senior Tester for a major MMO Video Game company. I won’t bother saying which one but you smart cookies can probably find out. We’re launching a major thing this week and the past few months have been very taxing on the QA team. We all want to see the game succeed, but still the hours can be grueling and disheartening. Sometimes I just get home and powering on a computer feels like a lot of effort.

Still, writing is a release but it has suffered from the strain. Dark Winter is almost done. There are maybe 10 chapters left, though probably less. I’m really excited about finishing it and getting it complete for all of you who have been following along so reliably.

So, thank you for that and I apologize for my frequent delays. Hopefully they will be kept at a minimum.

“A thrilling read, perfect to get you in the mood for Halloween. The publisher has assembled a tremendous collection of up and coming literary voices, many of whom are ready to do big things. By turns chilling, dramatic, and hilarious there’s a tale for everybody in this paranormal-themed anthology. I especially enjoyed E. Brandon Hart’s hysterical, irreverent short “Ghost Townies,” and the Gothic, sumptuously plotted “The Death of Marcus Wells” by J. Aurel Guay. A hearty “recommend” from this reader. Enjoy”

For a long moment, no one spoke. Sir Loran simply looked patient and awaited orders. Outside, Aderyn could see ships moving in on the moon. Destroyers and her father’s Carrier had taken up a perimeter around the moon as if for bombardment. Finally, her mother sighed. “Very well Sir Loran, best bring us in.”

Aderyn found Zennir beautiful. Small seas brushed up against high-rising mountains. Those mountains swept down into lush, green valleys and plains dotted with Groundling settlements. She saw strange beasts that moved on four legs as they flew low across the landscape. The sky was red with the gas giant Querra looming overhead. Its rings cast rainbows of light down across the waters and shimmered through low hanging clouds. Aderyn had never seen anything like it. Continue reading →

After, when we leave Shiod behind and make our way back toward the line, I resist the urge to think of home. Kat is looking at me and I wonder if he can see the resignation I feel. Still, he says nothing and we walk on through the lines of men on medical pallets, blood pooling and dripping. Some of them are already dead, others still clinging to a half-life of delirium and hope.

Our batteries open up, creating a cacophony so loud it shakes the ground we walk on and the walls that pen us in. Kat and I have to stop in a dugout to keep from falling over.

“What’s going on?” Kat asks a sergeant, the only man in the dugout. He’s older, a lined and bearded face half hidden behind a helmet and mask. He shrugs his shoulders.

The man next to Shiod dies. He is hit by a shell that explodes not a meter from us. In an instant we are covered in dirt. It comes over us like an ocean’s wave. My ears and mouth are especially vulnerable and are filled. Kat digs me out and I, gasping and spitting, help Shiod. Vanmere is spared from the whole of it by a stroke of luck.

The dead man lay where he’d previously stood, but only his lower torso and legs remain. The rest is gone, blown away in a blast that leaves the rest of us shaken but otherwise unhurt. I stare until Kat shakes me back to myself.

We are a decade into the future, relatively speaking. Rich was the one who discovered it after doing a calibration on the standard drives. Most of our power banks were low and recharging, so when he went down to look at them he saw the wear on the systems. From there he was able to determine how long we’d been under.

According to our Cans, we’d only been under for 4.85 years, which the Icarus accounted for. Rich and Evan both assume it was the extra burn time Jim had ordered. We’d traveled beyond the speed of light, causing more Dilation than we’d anticipated. The eggheads at NASA are going to have a field day with this.

If we ever get back.

As for Jim, Alex theorized that it was his metabolism that did it. He was healthier than the rest of us and might have burned off the drug faster. Add in Dilation and it paints a grim picture. The others weren’t convinced, Jennie and I included.

They locked Kate in her Can as a precaution. She was the last one in and something happened to Jim’s injection. Kate wouldn’t tell us what year it was and insisted that the laser systems be readied. The other ship was to be eliminated and our mission to proceed as planned. Well, none of us listened to that. Only she has access to the logistical computer and it is that system that controls our injections. She was the last one in and paranoia did the rest, so she was placed in hibernation.

This entry might sound like the writing of a man in full control of himself, but it’s far from the truth. It’s taken me three hours to write these few words, my fingers shaking with every one. I can still hear Kate screaming when they forced her into her Can and I keep remembering blood on Jim’s door.

They’re going to go over there, to the other ship. Alex thinks there might be survivors but I don’t think it’s possible. How did they get here before us when we burned beyond light speed? What happened to them? I can’t help but think about those stories I read, about astronauts going mad on those long voyages. Has that madness begun here? Already?

I look out my false window, tuning the screen to see the Chinese ship in its slow tumble. Something killed that ship. Everyone on board is dead, I know it. I’ve never felt so sure of anything in my life. They are all dead, and if we go over there…

It’s almost funny that I came here to escape my nightmares. Here, the nightmares grow worse and come to life. Maybe I’m still asleep, locked safely in my Can? I don’t remember dreaming in them during training but we were only in them a short time. Is any of this even real?